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    Vmware-tools Installed correctly?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved pfSense Packages
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    • K
      kapara
      last edited by

      Here is the output I get when verifying installation:

      $ ps ax|grep vmware
        921  ??  S      0:00.11 /usr/local/bin/vmtoolsd -c /usr/local/share/vmware-to
      1150  ??  S      0:00.00 sh -c ps ax|grep vmware
      1152  ??  R      0:00.00 sh -c ps ax|grep vmware

      Here is the suggested results if installed correctly:

      $ ps ax|grep vmware
      1026  ??  Ss    0:20.84 /usr/local/sbin/vmware-guestd –background /var/run/vmware_guestd.pid --halt-command /sbin/shutdown -p now
      19157  ??  SN    0:00.00 sh -c ps ax|grep vmware
      19159  ??  RN    0:00.00 grep vmware (sh)

      Skype ID:  Marinhd

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      • P
        painmaker
        last edited by

        fresh install pfsense and vmtools packages and same problem here

        $ ps ax|grep vmware
        1125  ??  I      0:02.05 /usr/local/bin/vmtoolsd -c /usr/local/share/vmware-to
        5856  ??  S      0:00.01 sh -c ps ax|grep vmware
        5858  ??  R      0:00.00 sh -c ps ax|grep vmware

        in the system logs is nothing about guestd

        shutdown in background is not working

        is broken the package?

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        • W
          w00t
          last edited by

          Yes, I think its correctly installed. The suggested line is from an older version of pfsense/vmware tools (i think).

          When you boot pfSense, keep an eye on the boot-post. Right before the boot process is done and the "idle screen" will appear there should be a bolded  output like "wmvare memory tools successfully loaded" or something like that. Ill post a screenshot tomorrow.

          EDIT:

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          • R
            rahvee
            last edited by

            Ok, I solved this, at least for myself.  I am running pfsense 1.2.3 on vmware ESXi 4.0u1.

            First, verify vmtoolsd is running, as described in the Open VM Tools Package home page
            http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Open_VM_Tools_package
            Notice:  it says to look for vmware-guestd, which was probably true in old versions, but nowadays, look for vmtoolsd.  I can't seem to login to edit the OpenVMTools Package wiki and correct that…  Hopefully someone else can correct that page soon.

            Second, verify the scripts run at boot time, as described with a nice screen capture photo by w00t
            http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=31828.0

            Third, you notice it still doesn't work.  This where I step in.  I noticed the vmtoolsd daemon was running with this command:
            /usr/local/bin/vmtoolsd -c /usr/local/share/vmware-tools/tools.conf -p /usr/local/lib/open-vm-tools/plugins/vmsvc

            I noticed the config file doesn't exist.  This was suspicious, but apparently not a problem.  I googled around and found how to create the config file, enable debug logging.  I found that when I click the "Shut down guest" button in VMWare, in fact vmtoolsd was receiving the signal, but then the system was failing to shutdown.  I found the default shutdown script /usr/local/share/vmware-tools/poweroff-vm-default and ran it.  Sure enough, it bombed out with some error message.  Instead of fixing it, I decided to replace it.

            Some day, somebody might come along and do this a little more pretty than what I did.  Like for example, figure out how to override the default shutdown script by using the config file.  But below is what I did, and it works.

            ssh into the pfsense box as root.

            cp -p /etc/rc.initial.halt /etc/rc.initial.halt.unconditional
                    edit /etc/rc.initial.halt.unconditional
                      Change this line:
                        (line #48)        if (strcasecmp(chop(fgets($fp)), "y") == 0) {
                      To this:
                        (line #48)        if (1) {
                    mv /usr/local/share/vmware-tools/poweroff-vm-default /usr/local/share/vmware-tools/poweroff-vm-default.orig
                    ln -s /etc/rc.initial.halt.unconditional /usr/local/share/vmware-tools/poweroff-vm-default

            Now when I click "Shut Down Guest" in ESXi, the pfsense guest actually shuts down gracefully.

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            • D
              danswartz
              last edited by

              Wow, I decided to try installing this on a fresh 2.0 VM.  Same puzzling stuff you ran into.  Glad I checked here first.  Kinda surprised the package is marked as "stable" when the instructions in the help section are stale, and the package does not work at all :(

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              • jimpJ
                jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                last edited by

                I'm not sure if anyone else is having issues yet but I just installed it on a VMware VM and it installed without error, and loaded all of the kernel modules, and appears to be functioning.

                EDIT: And I presume that VMware picked it up right because the VM menu now shows "Reinstall VMware Tools" instead of "Install VMware Tools".

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                • D
                  danswartz
                  last edited by

                  Is there any possible 32 vs 64 bit difference?  I think I tried the 64-bit…

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                  • jimpJ
                    jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                    last edited by

                    There could be, though I can't test 64-bit as easily, only my laptop supports 64-bit VMware VMs, my CPU on this box doesn't have VT and my larger box is running FreeBSD so I can only use VirtualBox.

                    So if someone has some errors on 64-bit it would be nice to know exactly what they are right now.

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                    • jimpJ
                      jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                      last edited by

                      I just tried it on a 64-bit VM and it worked just as well.*

                      • I cheated and committed some fixes to the 64-bit open-vm-tools package xml first. :-)

                      Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

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                      • D
                        danswartz
                        last edited by

                        Well that is odd.  I just config'ed a 32-bit vmware appliance and installed the tools.  Voila, they are running.  Hmmm.  Well, I'm only going to be giving the VM 1GB or so, so 64-bit is not necessary…

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